While the 2016 Summer Olympics as a whole are just getting into the second week, the men's and women's soccer tournaments are now down to their respective final fours.The semifinals await, starting on Tuesday with the women's contests and then Wednesday for the men's games. Brazil is still in the running in both tournaments, which means at least two of the games should have raucous, partisan crowds.Here's the schedule for the men's and women's semifinals, and projections for the latest odds based on team performances to this point.Brazil's Quest for Double GoldIn the women's tournament, Brazil vs. Sweden is certainly the more compelling match to watch, although Canada vs. Germany should prove to be a tense battle.Sweden is in the semifinals after a 1-1 deadlock with the United States in the quarterfinals led to the Nordic nation advancing 4-3 on penalties. Sweden manager Pia Sundhage came up with the right formula for her side to compete with her former charges on the United States. Sweden defended resolutely and played a controlled match throughout.United States goalkeeper Hope Solo harshly (and wrongly) criticized Sweden for its tactics after the match, but no one should really dare to argue with the results of a game played fairly and without much turmoil.Brazil also needed penalties to advance to the semis, beating Australia 7-6 from the spot after neither team could find the back of the net in 120 minutes of play.Sweden will have to corral Marta, Brazil's talismanic forward and captain, as well as Dabinha, who was part of several dangerous attacks against Australia.The Brazilian women have played excellent, attacking soccer for much of these Olympics, leaving them favorably compared to their male compatriots. TheNew York Times' Michael Powell wrote about the love swelling up for the women's side before their quarterfinal match against Australia:Much of this is owed to the Brazilian womens players, who kick and run with an artful joie de vivre, offering ankle-breaking stutter steps and swashbuckling kicks. Marta, the ponytailed star long known as the Pel of the womens game, spent too much of her career as a soccer prophet without much honor in her own country. Now she hears loud applause every time her foot touches the ball.While Brazil's women's team has played great soccer throughout the tournament, the men's side is finally catching up. The Selecao smacked Denmark 4-0 in its final group-stage match to secure passage to the knockout stage after two discouraging, scoreless draws against unheralded Iraq and South Africa.Brazil continued the strong play with a contentious 2-0 win over Colombia, a game that saw Neymar open his Olympic account to start the scoring and Luan Vieira scoring a late goal to put the match out of reach.Ray Hudson praised Neymar's scoring effort:Brazil's next opponent is Honduras, who made history on Saturday by defeating South Korea 1-0 to book its first-ever trip to the Olympic semifinals. Alberth Elis scored the lone goal in that contest against the run of play.South Korea played some attractive, swashbuckling soccer in the match but wasted several opportunities in front of goal. The Hondurans never lost their nerve, waiting patiently to beat South Korea on the counter.Brazil proved to be a wasteful squad in its first two games of these Olympics. A regression to that form could leave the team vulnerable to an upset against a strong-minded Honduras team.
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